I recently purchased a 15 month old gelding - he has not been well handled, having come straight off the welsh mountains with no handling. I have major issues with getting him to pick up his feet. He will either snatch his foot up and stamp it down and then follow that up with a nasty cow-kick, or will strike out with his front feet. He is very, very fast with his hind feet. The main problem is that his front feet are appalling. Splayed and each with a crack. It's going to take me weeks to get him to pick up his feet properly and really his feet need doing NOW. He is terrified of men and when I got a farrier to him (just after I bought him and didn't realise picking up feet was such an issue), he was scared to death and the farrier didn't feel it was fair to try and trim him - the farrier did say the feet could go a few more months, but I think they do need doing asap. I really don't know whether to: a) persevere with the training until I can get his feet up sufficiently for the farrier to trim or; b) get him sedated and trimmed as a one off and then spend the next 6 weeks working with him to him comfortable with picking up his feet. Any advice would be gratefully received.
02-14-2018, 07:10 PM
Yearling - help with poor feet
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